Family Ties

Families with a history of three generations at Crescent are very rare. Currently, there is only one such family at the School. Meet the Joliats.

Crescent roots run deep for Paul Joliat ’94, P’24, ’26. “It’s a home and the people in it are my family. Which is kind of funny, because the people in it actually are my family.” Three generations of Joliat boys have attended Crescent, and Paul Joliat’s wife, Amy, is a learning support specialist and Lower School subject head in English.

The Joliats’ tenure at Crescent began with patriarch Marc who entered Grade 1 in 1951. Marc’s parents, both professors in the French department at the University of Toronto, wanted to find the right place for their precocious son to grow. “I think what Crescent gave me was a sense of how important family and community are, and I definitely felt that here,” he says. One of his childhood memories of Grade 1 stands out: his teacher would occasionally dye her hair to match her dresses, not shying away from purples or greens. “She was ahead of her time.”

Despite the fact that he only spent two years at Crescent, the experience influenced Marc. When the time came to choose a school for his son Paul, he and his wife Sharyn were drawn to a familiar place. “We knew that he'd get a good education at Crescent,” says Marc. During the interview process, Paul made his father proud. “There was a question that they asked Paul. ‘Whose decision was it?’ And Paul answered, ‘It was a family decision.’”

Paul began Grade 4 at Crescent in 1985, the same year as one of his most cherished teachers, Graham Steele. “We got to go through our first year together,” he says. “I have a great father to begin with, and Graham was really another father figure.” Mr. Steele kicked off the school year with a fun creative writing exercise, where the boys invented characters, wrote biographies about them, and then took photos posing as their characters. “We got our ties around our foreheads and ruffled our blazers and such,” he says. “I really remember just how much fun that was.” The exercise helped the boys forge connections with each other in their early days at Crescent.

In addition to nurturing his interest in theatre arts, Paul loved sports and participated with zeal — especially hockey, where he was coached by Steve “Rog” Davies. “We used to practice at seven o'clock in the morning. I would get there early with our goalie because he had to get changed. One morning, Mr. Davies was walking in at the very moment that I shattered a pane of glass with a slap shot. He said, ‘Well, it looks like you've been practicing!’”

Paul remembers fondly how his parents supported his passion for sports. “They came to every sporting event that I ever played,” he says. “I remember so vividly watching them watching me, and now it touches me deeply to see them watching their grandkids.”

Paul’s two sons, Cole ’24 and Reid ’26, are Crescent students and his nephew, Gabe ’30, recently started Grade 5. In the year after Cole’s birth, Paul wrote down a bucket list — a list of personal goals, some quite lofty. “There were things on there that I wrote down that I have accomplished, like running a marathon or seeing the Taj Mahal,” he says. “But one of the things that I wrote in there was ‘See my son graduate from Crescent.’ When Reid came along, I thought, ‘OK, we’ll just make it plural.’”

Paul credits Crescent for playing a pivotal role in his professional life, too. “I had a major in psychology and a minor in music. After university, I had no idea what I wanted to do,” says Paul. “I remember coming back to the school and talking to Linda Gray. She asked me, ‘What are you interested in?’ I didn’t know. She said, ‘Let me rephrase that. What are you passionate about?’”

Paul’s passion for sports, and help from Ms. Gray, led him to a job working at the RBC Canadian Open (then the Bell Canadian Open). Today, Paul works for Sun Life Financial in their philanthropy and sponsorship portfolios.

When it comes to the next generation of Crescent alumni, Paul and Marc agree. “All these things that I got out of Crescent, I see my kids getting out of it as well,” says Paul. “We tell friends, when they’re considering schools for their sons, ‘Your son will find his way at Crescent. He will find something that he’s passionate about at this school.’”

Present / October 2022

Upper School Mentor Groups are in a yearbook competition for the most creative group photo. This entry is from Mr. Shannon and Ms. MacInnis’ Mentor Group.